Get Your Grow On

Here in the 7A zone (I swear I used to be in zone 6, things are changing) its definitely time to be thinking about gardening. Vegetable gardening. Flower gardening. Fruits. All the good things!

I’ve been trying for years to get my parents to do a gardening blog. Alas I failed at that just like I’ve failed to convince them to get chickens or baby dwarf Nigerian goats. 99.9 percent of my gardening knowledge comes from my parents. Its quite a gift actually. I’m still learning from them, and they are also still learning. That is the beauty of gardening.

There is always more to know, to refine, to improve. Gardening - much like learning jiu-jitsu and learning to cook (two of my other hobbies) is full of opportunity for failure. This is fantastic. Easy things are boring. Challenge the mind and challenge the body for a good life.

Okay enough philosophizing, lets get down to some tid bits to help get the gardening season off right. This won’t be comprehensive, so I’ll try to post more about gardening as we move through the season(s).

That word “season(s)” is an important one. Gardening and growing food helps connect you to the seasons of the year, to understand the lifecycles of nature, to experience the balance (and imbalance) of the ecology you create in your little oasis - whether its some herbs in the window sill, a grow bag on a patio or balcony or a full-fledge garden. There is a time and place for everything. To everything there is a season as the song says.

Spring Season - The first thing to get a grasp on is that in the family of vegetables (and greens - are greens a vegetable? hmm lemme google that dot com) there are Spring Vegetables, Summer Vegetables and Fall Vegetables. We can add winter in there too for the really dedicated folks.

Right now we are in the Late Winter moving into Spring season.

This is the time to:

• buy seeds

• start seeds (or get on it if you haven’t yet!)

• clean-up the garden and prep the soil

• plan what goes where

• direct sow spring seeds

• consider your Bunny Munchkins Perimeter Protection Plan (BMPPP)

Buy Seeds

My preference is to support independent small seed providers. Just like our food system, the seed industry is monopolized by a handful of seed companies. If the name Monsanto makes you queasy this is important to know. Many of these seeds grow vegetables whose seeds you can’t save or plant the next year. The independent small seed providers are trying to preserve the variety and availability of heritage seeds. This variety helps insure the security of our food system, reduce the spread of disease and ensure biodiversity. Some companies I buy seeds or plants from are:

• Territorial Seeds

• Vermont Bean Company

• Seed Savers Exchange

• Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

• Prairie Moon Nursery

• Park Seeds

• Stark Brothers

• *Edit: I need to double check a few of these, as one or two may have been bought up by the larger conglomerations! Yikes!

Tip for the week - review the seeds you have left from last year or the year before. Consider what grew well, what you want to try again or if you want to switch-up varieties. Also consider swapping seeds with friends and family. Maybe they have 200 radish seeds and you have 200 carrot seeds. See how that works?

Clean-up the Garden and Prep the Soil

Its a good idea to pull any diseased plants in the Fall. But don’t pull out everything. Those hollow flower stems or other plants that went to seed are hosts for all kinds of insects and bees that will enhance the ecological balance of your garden. I read/heard somewhere to leave these types of stalks in until its been above 50 degrees for several days so that everything can hatch before you yank.

I might clean up one bed where I intend to start my spring seeds, and then work my way through the rest once its a bit warmer. Its also a good idea to give your soil a boost with compost. I’m a fan of Bumper Crop in the red bag but there are all kinds out there (or you can make your own!). The next level is testing your soil and then balancing out the nutrients needed by different plants. I’ve been winging it, but aim to give this a go this year to see if I can be a little more successful.

Now when cleaning up the garden keep an eye on some of the herb plants from last year. Some of them will come back - thyme, rosemary, oregano, cat nip, chives, parsley. They don’t always come back but my thyme, oregano and catnip have been going for years. I needed a new chive plant last year, but my previous one went for almost 10 years. Rosemary is iffy for me if it makes it from year to year. OH - but my Bay plant that I love I bring indoors for the winter and then stick the pot outside once it warms up.

Tip of the week: Don’t work the soil a lot if its wet. If you can squeeze a handful and it stays together its too wet. If you work too much when the soil is wet you’ll take away all the good little spaces that need to be there for healthy roots and healthy soil. Compressed soil is sad soil.

Starting Seeds:

Not all seeds are created equal. Just like people they have different needs and desires. Some seeds you can start indoors and then transplant outdoors when they reach both the appropriate size and the weather and warmth of the soil are where they need to be. Starting seeds can save you money on the cost of buying seedlings (plus reduce the number of plastic containers you end up with unless you buy your seedlings from a farmer like my farmer that puts them in core pots).

Starting seeds is definitely a learning process. You need light (sometimes dark - oops sorry pansy seeds!), seed starting medium, temperature control, etc. Or you can just wing it and hope for the best and forgive yourself for not being perfect. Good things to start from seeds indoors in late winter are tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, some flowers, herbs. Things to NOT start indoors are things that are roots - like carrots and beets. I also wouldn’t buy beets as seedlings (made this mistake, learn from me). You will see these at the store. But don’t do it. They are too easily disturbed. And who wants disturbed vegetables? We go to the garden for a little peace!

Tip of the week: Its going to warm up and you and about 1000000000 other people are going to get excited to garden. But don’t be fooled by the plants at the big box stores (like Home Depot). They’ll happily sell you a tomato plant in March - but IT IS NOT TIME TO PLANT TOMATO PLANTS OUTSIDE. PUT THAT BACK. NOW. There. That’s better. Also don’t buy your plants there if you can help it. Go to a local nursery, or a farmers market, or your friend who grew way too many plants from seed because they got carried away . . . .You can also order a lot of vegetable plants online. They come all packaged up safely. See the seed companies above for plants too.

Plan what goes where

If you are just starting out you have a clean slate! If you grew a garden last year, hopefully you know what you put where. Crop rotation (even if your “crops” are in grow bags) is important for reducing pests and disease and keeping the nutrition in the soil balanced. Its hard in a small garden sometimes to get this rotation down. Another aspect to keep in mind is how long plants take to produce, and what you might pull out and replace with something else come Summer Season. Or what you might plant in the shadow of another - like lettuce during the summer doesn’t like it so hot, so who can provide it a little shade or coolness? Also - some plants are friends, and some are frenemies. Some drive pests away from their friends (like marigolds), others won’t grow so well where the other grew the year before (like potatoes and tomatoes). This overall topic is referred to as “companion planting”. There is a lot of info out there on this, so get to googling! But as with all things don’t fall for the analysis paralysis. Better to grow than to not grow at all.

OH - but you know that pad of grid paper you have that you haven’t used up playing old fashion Battle Ship (c’mon, whose with me? you know what I’m talking about right??) - that grid paper is perfect for planning your garden. And then you can keep those maps from year to year to learn from - so you can rotate to the best of your ability, remember what did well, etc. Plus, call me crazy but drawing maps is kind of fun.

Direct Sowing - which means plant seeds directly in the dirt outside

You reap what you sow. Or something like that. My momma always told me “Plant peas on St. Patrick’s Day”. Last year it was so warm in February I put them in the ground like two weeks early. But then the cold came back, which was fine because peas don’t care. That’s the thing about Spring Vegetables. They are enthusiastic about getting growing and they don’t mind a little chill in the air. In fact they prefer it a little. Too hot and they won’t like it. Save that heat for the heat loving tomatoes and peppers. So - get your dirt ready and get your seeds and get ready to plant peas (sugar snap and shelling), radishes, carrots, lettuces, kales, pak choi, chard, beets.

I’m sure there are other things you can plant now(ish) too but these are my go-to’s. Go a little nuts and plant more than one kind of carrot (I just ordered yellow carrot seeds!!), and some different kinds of radishes. Try different varieties of peas.

If you have space, plan for planting successions. What this means is you’ll plant a first round of seeds on St Patrick’s Day - or thereabouts. And then 10 days to 2 weeks later you’ll plant more seeds. This way you’ll have all these wonderful things producing for an extended period. And then again for another round because its STILL NOT TIME FOR TOMATOES.

BMPPP - Bunny Munchkins Perimeter Protection Plan (and friends)

There is nothing more devastating (in the garden) than being super excited about that edamame that is growing strong, looking good, and then the next day its gone except for little scraps left behind. Or the row of peas dead hanging from the support because SOMEBUDDY snipped them off at the base. Yup, cute little Bunny Munchkins with the fluffy cottontail butt has invaded and bellied up to the smorgasbord of your garden. Now this could be Bunny Munchkins, or Rudolph the ringleader of the neighborhood deer gang, Rocky Raccoon of the Bandits, and those sneaky Squirrels who have moved on from the bird feeders to the delectable cherry tomatoes you grew just for them (or so it seems). So - before you get all excited about growing your own food, think for a moment about who might be hanging around to partake of your efforts.

Here’s the key - be mentally prepared to share your garden with a few beasts. Take it as a compliment.

Then - put up a fence if your garden is in the yard. Consider the size of the holes in the fence. Consider the height of the fence. This is level 1. Then comes blood meal, coyote pee, Irish spring soap and all manner of concoctions like garlic, eggs and hot sauce.

In Conclusion

I’m so excited that you’ve started gardening! I will like and love all your garden and vegetable and flower pictures. Hang tough and don’t give up! Start small and add a bit each year. All you need is a little space with sun, add dirt, water and seeds. You got this!